Featuring new and exclusive content from the most ambitious new media project ever conducted in space, Space Explorers: the ISS Experience by Felix & Paul Studios, in association with TIME, and in partnership with NASA and the International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory.
This project consists of more than 200 hours of 3D-360° immersive content filmed onboard the ISS and more than 16 hours of testimonials by astronauts. The recordings form the basis for the immersive story and narrative of THE INFINITE.
In an unforgettable journey where virtual reality, contemporary art, and projections collide with exceptional realism, participate in the daily life of international astronauts during their Space mission from mission training to their ascension into space to their return back to Earth.
You will be teleported alongside these astronauts and meet them: you will witness their training sessions, a friendly meal and you will even be at the center of a football game. And finally, you’ll be able to see the vastness of Space and the Earth from a different perspective that only astronauts get to see: the overview effect.
The key element that differentiates the experience is in the design of the experience itself. This immersive narrative journey takes place at certain moments in virtual reality with a headset (35 min), and at others in real life (25 min). In both instances, the visitor is called upon to play an active role and takes charge and shapes his or her journey aboard the ISS.
The use of a 3D-360° camera designed by Canadian engineers was an innovative response to capturing content in space, overcoming a number of unique challenges to truly immerse yourself into the ISS. Visitors are able to wander freely through a life-size 3D reproduction of the ISS, discovering content along the way. As only a few hundred astronauts have had the occasion to live and spend time aboard the orbital space station while on their mission; the ultimate goal of the project is to provide the public the rare opportunity to experience life on the ISS, as if they were there.
With the content film by this special camera, visitors are able to transition from an experience in 6DoF (six degrees of freedom: the spectator is able to walk freely in a digitally reproduced virtual space), the physical walk in the virtual space station, to the content presented in 3DoF (formal cinematographic content, filmed in 360° and presented in virtual reality, but limiting the spectator to a fixed position). Throughout their walk into the ISS into the virtual world, we must ensure that they can detect the walls and objects within the physical environment. With this ability to sense and touch objects, visitors will fully experience the sensation of walking in space.
In this reproduction of the ISS, we have the capability to accommodate and track 100 visitors simultaneously in real-time with our own monitoring and network intelligence device to avoid any physical collisions. Thanks to a designated algorithm to better distribute the visual environments allowing this circulation capacity, the substantial number of visitors that the virtual portion of the experience can accommodate is innovative, as no other studios have yet to achieve such a high throughput.
Partners
Felix & Paul Studios
TIME Studio
PHI Studio